A TEAM of Chinese judges from the city of Wuhan attended two conferences on English commercial, civil and criminal law this week as part of a legal fact-finding tour of Manchester, Wuhan’s twin city. The conferences were hosted by Mason’s partner Edward Davies. The delegation, headed by Yu Cuzhong, vice-director of the Wuhan Intermediate People’s […]

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Alison Laferia reports Business and Law on the Internet is a guide to the legal implications of doing business on the Net. The book assesses the potential risks and gives advice on carrying out legally secure activity on the Internet. Written by practising international lawyer Oliver Hance, it covers protection of intellectual property, freedom of […]

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New recruit heads huge tax law rewrite

A MASSIVE five-year, £25 million project to put 7,000 pages of tax legislation into plain English has taken its first steps with the appointment of Ron Downhill, tax partner at Berwin Leighton, and two other tax experts as advisers on the project.

Downhill said he and the other two advisers to the Inland Revenue would not take part in the rewriting, but for a consultation period of six months would give their views and the views of colleagues on how the legislation should be rewritten, and in what style and order.

Once these issues have been decided, the Inland Revenue envisages a team of 40 lawyers, tax experts and parliamentary clerks from the public and private sectors spending five years rewriting most of the primary tax legislation – 6-7,000 pages – at a cost of £5 million a year.

“I am reasonably enthusiastic about it,” said Downhill. “But the rewrite will need to be reviewed after a year or so to see how well it has gone.”

Downhill is a member of the Law Society's revenue law committee. The other panelists are Maurice Parry-Wingfield, a consultant at Deloitte Touche and a member of the Tax Law Review Committee, part of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, and David Swaine, chair of the tax committee of the Confederation of British Industry.

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A TEAM of Chinese judges from the city of Wuhan attended two conferences on English commercial, civil and criminal law this week as part of a legal fact-finding tour of Manchester, Wuhan’s twin city. The conferences were hosted by Mason’s partner Edward Davies. The delegation, headed by Yu Cuzhong, vice-director of the Wuhan Intermediate People’s […]

Norton Rose City lawyer Charles Proctor has warned that creditors will have no legal right to reject payment made with the Euro, the new European single currency due to be introduced at the end of the decade. Speaking at a conference in Cambridge, Proctor said that a creditor will have no valid claim for breach […]

Alison Laferia reports Business and Law on the Internet is a guide to the legal implications of doing business on the Net. The book assesses the potential risks and gives advice on carrying out legally secure activity on the Internet. Written by practising international lawyer Oliver Hance, it covers protection of intellectual property, freedom of […]

Solicitor Linda Packard has left management consultants Binder Hamlyn to head the legal consulting activity of The David Andrews Partnership, part of Grant Thornton. She specialises in advising law firms on all areas of business strategy. She will be joined by ex-BT information technology consultant Tim Lavender who will focus on telecommunications.

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